12 Signs You May Be Making Your Children Idols

Children are a blessing from God and in our love for them we can easily make them the center of our lives. We would never say we worship our children but sometimes our actions look that way. When we make our children idols, we are doing major damage to them and to us.

I asked my daughter, Jennifer, to help me with this post. She is a pastor’s wife, mother of two, and ministers often to other moms.

Here are 12 signs you may be making your children idols:

Your time with your children keeps you from personal worship, prayer, and bible study.

When your need to make your children happy keeps you from appropriately disciplining them.

Every conversation resolves around your children, their accomplishments, their activities, and their lives.

Your children are an excuse for not going to church or serving in the church.

When your identity is found in your children to the point that you are easily puffed up or easily shattered based on your children’s actions.

You look for opportunities to compare your children to other children feeling prideful when your children’s accomplishments are superior.

When your children’s activities become a barrier to you sharing your faith or interacting with your community.

When you live in constant fear for them, often losing sleep, and irrationally trying to over protect them.

When you use your kids to make yourself look good.

When you need your kids to like you so you give them what they want out of a fear of rejection.

Your time, energy, and focus says your children mean more to you than your spouse.

You easily become offended when others don’t treat your children special.

Our children are gifts and we are blessed to be their parents but they should never become the center of our lives dangerously taking the place of God as our focus of worship. There is a season for parenting (verb) our children as we teach and train them to know God and prayerfully to one day embrace their own personal faith in Him. We should parent understanding that one day we are to let our children go so they can accomplish the plans God has for their lives.

It is dangerous for us and for our children when we make them idols. Beware of these signs and take action to make sure Christ is the central part of your life and your worship.

What are other ways kids can become idols?

“Love the Lord your God with all our heart, with all your soul, and with all your strength. These words that I am giving you today are to be in your heart. Repeat them to your children. Talk about them when you sit in your house and when you walk along the road, when you lie down and when you get up.” Deuteronomy 6:5-7

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About Selma

Selma Wilson is a wife, a mother, a grandmother, an advocate for moms, a cheerleader for marriages, a lover of Jesus, a family and marriage counselor/speaker, and the Chief People Officer at LifeWay Christian Resources. Read more about Selma.